Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Wednesday that the Trump administration has repealed three firearms regulations imposed under President Biden and will publish at least 34 rule changes through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, what Blanche called the most comprehensive regulatory reform package in ATF history. The rollback targets Biden-era rules on pistol braces, private firearms sales, and bump stocks, and it arrives as the administration moves to fulfill a February 2025 executive order aimed at protecting Second Amendment rights.
The announcement, made during a press conference with newly confirmed ATF Director Robert Cekada, drew immediate praise from gun-rights organizations and Republican state officials who had spent years fighting the Biden rules in court. It also marked the clearest signal yet that the administration views the prior White House's firearms agenda as constitutionally hostile to lawful gun owners.
Blanche framed the changes not as a retreat from law enforcement but as a correction of bureaucratic overreach. The Daily Caller reported that Blanche told reporters the rules had been drafted without regard for how firearms businesses actually operate or how legal gun owners handle their weapons.
"For too long, regulations were written without any real understanding of how firearms businesses operate, how lawful gun owners actually handle their firearms or what truly improves public safety."
That line captures the core complaint gun-rights advocates have lodged against the Biden ATF for years: that the agency treated the Second Amendment as a problem to be managed rather than a right to be respected.
The first regulation repealed is the Biden administration's pistol brace rule. That rule redefined "rifle" to mean any weapon "designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder." The practical effect was to reclassify millions of braced pistols, firearms fitted with stabilizing accessories originally designed for disabled veterans, as short-barreled rifles subject to the National Firearms Act.
Owners who wanted to keep their braced pistols faced a grim menu of compliance options: modify the barrel to exceed 16 inches, pay a $200 tax and register the firearm as a short-barreled rifle, remove the brace entirely, or surrender and destroy the weapon. Federal courts had already struck down the rule, but its formal repeal removes any lingering regulatory cloud.
The second rule targeted is the "Definition of 'Engaged in the Business' as a Dealer in Firearms," issued in April 2024. That regulation attempted to expand background-check requirements to cover more firearms sellers, including those operating at gun shows and outside brick-and-mortar stores. Critics said the rule's vague language could have made any private sale of a firearm for profit illegal. A federal judge blocked it in June 2024, but the Biden administration left the rule on the books. AP News reported the proposed repeal of that 2024 rule was among the more than 30 changes announced Wednesday.
The third change involves the regulation the Biden administration used to target so-called bump stocks. The Supreme Court struck down a prior Trump-era bump stock ban in a 6-3 decision, case number 22-976, finding that the ATF had exceeded its statutory authority by reclassifying the devices as machine guns. Despite that ruling, the Biden administration moved to propose a new redefinition of "machine gun" nearly two years later. The Trump DOJ is now altering that regulation to bring it into line with the Court's holding.
Taken together, the three rules represent the pillars of Biden's administrative gun-control strategy, an approach that bypassed Congress and relied on the ATF's rulemaking power to impose restrictions that could not survive a legislative vote.
The three headline repeals are only part of the package. Blanche said the ATF would publish at least 34 rule changes in total. The Washington Examiner reported the package includes both final and proposed rulemaking actions aimed at reducing the federal regulatory burden on lawful gun owners and sellers.
Among the additional changes, the ATF plans to end an enhanced regulatory enforcement policy that had targeted licensed firearms dealers under Biden. That policy led to a spike in Federal Firearms License revocations. Under the new approach, dealers whose licenses were revoked or surrendered will be allowed to reapply, a meaningful shift for small business owners who felt the Biden ATF treated them as suspects rather than partners in compliance.
The administration also signaled revisions to Form 4473, the standard federal form used in firearms transactions. Breitbart News, citing DOJ correspondence, described the package as a "landmark rulemaking package" representing the culmination of a comprehensive regulatory review conducted under Executive Order 14206, "Protecting Second Amendment Rights," signed by President Trump on February 7, 2025.
That executive order directed then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to review orders issued by the Biden administration that expressed hostility toward gun owners. The package announced Wednesday is the most visible product of that review so far, and it suggests the administration is not content to simply block Biden-era rules in court. It wants them gone from the Federal Register entirely.
Anticipating criticism that rolling back gun regulations would hamper federal law enforcement, Blanche addressed the issue directly. He insisted the changes would not remove tools from agents pursuing violent criminals.
"Nothing we are doing today weakens law enforcement. We are not taking tools away from the people, the men and women who go after violent criminals. This administration, as it always has, remains fully committed to targeting those who break the law, gang members, repeat offenders, traffickers, and cartels."
He went further, arguing that clearer rules would actually improve enforcement outcomes. The logic is straightforward: when regulations are so convoluted that ordinary gun owners cannot comply in good faith, the ATF ends up spending resources chasing paperwork violations instead of real criminals.
"If anything, what we're doing today will actually help law enforcement because clearer rules mean better compliance and better compliance means better enforcement."
That argument tracks with what the Washington Times reported about the broader package: the DOJ framed the revisions as aligning gun regulations with Supreme Court precedent and reducing compliance burdens on lawful gun owners and sellers.
The pattern here is worth noting. The Biden administration repeatedly used administrative rulemaking to accomplish what it could not pass through Congress. When courts struck down those rules, the administration left them in place or proposed new versions. The Trump DOJ is now cleaning up the wreckage, and doing so in a way that mirrors the broader administration posture of reasserting enforcement priorities that the prior White House neglected or inverted.
NRA-ILA executive director John Commerford issued a statement praising the announcement in sweeping terms. He described the DOJ-ATF rule package as "a monumental step forward in restoring and protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans."
"Under President Trump's leadership and Executive Order 14206, we are finally rolling back decades of burdensome regulations that have done nothing to enhance public safety while infringing on our constitutional freedoms."
Commerford also praised the administration for delivering on its promise to gun owners, a pointed contrast with the Biden years, when firearms owners watched new restrictions appear through agency fiat with little public input and less legislative authority.
Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen struck a similar note. Knudsen, who has been active in Second Amendment litigation at the state level, called the announcement "a day of celebration for lawful gun owners and the gun industry."
"The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and I'm glad the Trump Administration agrees."
That phrase, "not a second-class right", appeared in Blanche's own remarks as well, suggesting it has become a deliberate messaging framework for the administration's firearms policy. And it captures a genuine grievance. For four years under Biden, the ATF treated gun ownership as a regulatory problem to be tightened, not a constitutional guarantee to be honored.
This rollback is part of a broader pattern. The Trump administration has moved aggressively to reverse Biden-era regulatory actions across multiple policy areas, from immigration enforcement to federal grant programs. In each case, the argument is the same: the prior administration used executive authority to impose policies that Congress never authorized and that courts have repeatedly questioned.
The firearms arena is a particularly clear example. The Biden ATF redefined statutory terms, expanded regulatory categories, and imposed compliance burdens that affected millions of lawful gun owners, all without a single vote in Congress. Federal courts blocked several of those rules. The Supreme Court rejected the legal theory behind the bump stock ban. Yet the regulations remained on the books, creating uncertainty for gun owners and dealers who could not be sure which rules were enforceable and which were dead letters.
Some open questions remain. The full text of the 34 ATF rule changes has not been publicly detailed beyond the three headline repeals and the Form 4473 revisions. It is unclear how many of the 34 actions are final rules versus proposed rules still subject to public comment. And the administration has not specified a timeline for implementation.
There are also questions about whether progressive state attorneys general or gun-control organizations will challenge the repeals in court, a near certainty given the pattern of litigation that has defined firearms policy for the past decade. The broader political environment suggests those fights are coming.
But for now, the direction is clear. The Trump DOJ is not simply pausing Biden's gun regulations. It is dismantling them, formally, publicly, and with the full weight of the executive branch behind the effort.
Blanche made the administration's posture plain in his closing remarks at the press conference.
"This Department of Justice is ending the weaponization of federal authority against law-abiding gun owners."
That is a strong claim. But when you look at what the Biden ATF actually did, redefining rifles, criminalizing private sales, ignoring Supreme Court rulings, it is hard to argue the shoe doesn't fit. The broader trend of progressive administrations governing by regulation rather than legislation has consequences, and gun owners have borne more than their share.
When the government treats a constitutional right like a loophole to be closed, the correction is going to be loud. Wednesday's announcement was exactly that.
